name} JOEL
age} LATE 40s
gender} MALE
orientation} HETEROSEXUAL
hair} BROWN,GRAYING
eyes} BROWN
height} 5'11"
appearance} { X }{ X }{ X }{ X }

backtagging} I SUCK AT THIS, BUT I WILL TRY
fourth wall} SURE WHY NOT
threadhopping} IF APPROPRIATE
affection} HE IS NOT CUDDLY, AT ALL
aggression} HE IS VERY AGGRESSIVE, AND WILL RECIPROCATE
powers} HERE

personality}

In summary: Joel is very insular with his feelings, he's smart, a survivalist, exceptionally cautious, and he has survivor's guilt which has eased over time thanks to Ellie's friendship. He doesn't expect any hand outs, and is clever in getting what he wants and needs without being greedy. He's a survivor, and damn good at it. To people he doesn't know, he's not very helpful, won't be generous, nor is he about to give them handouts either. Part of being a survivalist is his ability to adapt to new situations; for any new situation he is put in (such as a new game setting) he will adapt and make the best of it, overcoming obstacles along the way.

Now to enemies, Joel has been described in canon as a crazy man. He's brutal, savage even, if he needs to be. He doesn't just threaten people off, he brutalizes them with unforgiving fists. If he needs something from an enemy, there is no negotiation except for how soon they give in to his torture. Joel has become this way for a few reasons which are explained in his history but as far as his psychology goes, it has been shaped by the world he's lived in for the past two decades. If you aren't tough, and if you don't shoot/hit first, the consequence is that you die or go hungry. The consequences are very real and very harsh, and so Joel has developed himself to be just as harsh in order to survive.

That sums up how he treats people he's neutral to and people he would consider enemies. As far as people he cares for, Joel is quite generous in his quiet way, and fiercely protective. The character he grows closest to in the game is the teenager Ellie, and Joel breaks out of his solemn and quiet demeanor eventually with her. Joel seems almost at ease around her, even making jokes and talking a little about his past which for the year previous in their story arc he had not.

We see him behave this way with a woman named Tess at the beginning of the game as well and it's indicated that they have known each other for some time. They have known each other long enough to have developed a trusting friendship at least. Joel behaves much differently around her (and eventually Ellie) than he does around anyone else. To others, Joel often comes across as nothing short of a hardass, if you'll pardon the expression.

There are two contributing factors we're given for Joel's protectiveness. The first is his being not only a dad, but a single dad. It's clear from the lifestyle he's given his daughter at the beginning of the game that he's done his best to provide for her. His daughter Sarah has a large room, and it's filled with toys, posters, and pictures of the things she finds joy in. One of the pictures that is prominent in her room and comes up later in the game, is a picture of her and Joel together with a soccer trophy. This gives us a clue that Joel was not only a good day, but a dedicated one, and we can infer from that a protective and supportive parent.

The second contributing factor to his protectiveness is the subsequent death of Sarah. This moment not only traumatizes Joel but instills in him an even greater need to be protective, for while he doesn't feel the need to prove himself to anyone, in order to be mentally healthy he eventually has to face that fear and overcome it. He does this repeatedly by again and again protecting and saving Ellie at great risk to himself. These factors in his past manifest as him being highly reluctant not only to at first bond with Ellie but also had him reluctant in trusting her with a firearm of her own. His lack of belief in himself to keep her safe, as well as his desire to protect her, has him acting that way at first. Only once she proves herself, by protecting him and herself, and as their bond goes stronger, does Joel allow himself to care for her enough to try and protect her even further. Allowing himself to be in that role again is difficult for him, as it opens him up to having to face and relive the trauma he went through with Sarah's death.

As for how his protectiveness shows itself in his brutality, it could be said that his brutality is a warped version of his desire to prove himself capable of protecting people important to him. One of the pivotal points in the game for getting insight into how Joel became the way he is over the past twenty years, is his confrontation with Tommy his brother. Tommy insinuates that Joel was highly brutal while they still lived together after the initial outbreak of the plague and subsequent fall of civilized society. Joel defends himself by saying he did it to keep them alive and while that is likely true, Tommy retorts by saying that he still has nightmares about the things Joel did. We can infer that he was far more brutal than might have been necessary.

Joel obviously rationalizes his behavior by believing he was protecting Tommy. By the time twenty years has passed, that brutality is not for the protection of anyone in particular but rather to do more than simply survive in their post-apocalyptic world. Joel has made a name for himself, and a reputation as someone you do not cross. While he doesn't use the same nightmare-inducing tactics he had when Tommy was around it's made obvious through dialog that Joel is still very dangerous.

Eventually this comes back around to using his brutality in a far more personal way, when he tortures two men to get information on a kidnapped Ellie's whereabouts. All these events come full circle when the scene from the beginning of the game, with a twenty-year younger Joel carrying Sarah to safety, is mirrored by Joel carrying Ellie to safety out of the hospital where she was going to be killed. Joel faces and almost literally relives the trauma from twenty years ago when his daughter died, and by saving Ellie, he overcomes a lot of his survivor's guilt.

history}

The game begins with Joel at around 30 years of age, in his mortgaged home with his teenage daughter Sarah. The two obviously have a close and friendly relationship as he's given a watch for his birthday and the two joke around with one another. Joel is preoccupied with money problems but jokes along with her and seems generally content. Everything changes from there, the outbreak of cordyceps overtakes their Texas town. This fungal infection creates zombie-like behaviors in people and sweeps across the nation like wildfire. During the mad dash to escape the urban area they live in, Sarah is shot by police and dies.

The next we see Joel it's twenty years later and he's nearing fifty years of age, and this Joel is markedly different from his younger self. To say he's jaded is an understatement and it shows in the harsh appearance he has in this post-apocalyptic world, and in his mannerisms as we are introduced to him now and also his companion Tess. The two are business partners of sorts, and display a brutality as the events play out. Tess and Joel meet Ellie, a girl around the age Sarah had been. Joel is immediately adverse to the fact they are tasked with escorting Ellie out of the quarantine zone they all live in. It is ironically clear to the audience that part of Joel's aversion is the obvious parallel between Ellie and Sarah his deceased daughter. However, part of the aversion is also in the fact that Joel's priorities have changed and he doesn't want to needlessly risk his or Tess's life for a person that they don't know and aren't indebted to.

However, they ultimately decide to take Ellie outside the quarantine zone to meet up with an anti-government group known as the Fireflies. The journey outside the quarantine zone is fraught with danger, both from cordyceps infected and from government militia trying to stop them. They do make it out, but Tess is a casualty along the way. Before she sacrifices herself to give Joel and Ellie a better fighting chance, she tells Joel that they are "shitty people" and need to do something better -- come to find out Ellie is naturally immune to the fungus infection, and Tess believes she is worth saving.

Joel isn't convinced, but out of respect for Tess, he does as she asks. Their next months see Joel and Ellie becoming closer as they face hunters (groups of non-infected people who kill other people to steal their meager possessions, even to the point of cannibalism to survive), infected, and more government militia. It's only very slowly that Joel warms up to Ellie until they come to a point where she saves his life by shooting someone. It is only then that Joel allows her to carry a gun, and it's a bittersweet reminder that part of the reason he's so harsh with Ellie is that he's trying to protect her. He makes many comments about how she is too young for this or that, when dealing with hard and adult topics, but Ellie always proves she is capable with dealing with things.

Many months pass along their journey to reunite Ellie with the Firefly group, and this journey takes them to Joel's brother Tommy. When they meet up with him, Joel tells Tommy in no uncertain terms that he needs to take on the task of taking Ellie to the Fireflies instead of himself. This is a pivotal point at which we learn more about Joel. His conversation with Tommy informs us that Joel kept himself and Tommy alive through very brutal tactics that Tommy was scarred by and never forgave him for. We also see that Joel is still not ready to deal with the death of his daughter and therefore cannot associate with Ellie who he parallels her with.

Once Ellie finds out Joel is trying to pass her off to Tommy, she runs away and Tommy and Joel have to fight a group of hunters to find her. The two, Ellie and Joel, exchange some harsh words where they establish the foundation of their relationship: Ellie has lost everyone but him and she won't lose him again, and Joel affirms that he does not see Ellie as a substitute for his daughter. It's at that point that Joel is finally able to separate the idea of Ellie and Sarah as the same, and is therefore able to accept Ellie for who she is, and accept a place for her in his life and in his heart.

They are very much closer after that. Over the next few months they encounter many more hardships including Joel being grievously injured and Ellie having to nurse him back to health and provide for the both of them. She's captured doing this and Joel has to go rescue her, and they bond even closer. When they finally make it to the Fireflies they are as close as they possibly can be and are no longer just friends but family. It's then that Joel learns that the Fireflies intend on killing Ellie to get at the secrets of her brain to obtain what they hope is the cure for the infection.

Joel can't let that happen, not as much as she means to him then, and he takes Ellie out of the Firefly's building and escapes with her. When Ellie wakes up from the sedative they put her under, Joel lies to her and tells her that the Fireflies didn't need her after all. It's left fairly vague on whether Ellie believes him or not although she asks him soon thereafter if he was lying or not to which Joel swears he was telling the truth.